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May 2004

 

Investigated the options for replacing the distributor.  Found out that the original Lucas 23D unit was no longer manufactured.  I wasn't too keen on another second hand unit, so I looked into other options.  I very quickly discarded the idea of a QED Ignition Management Unit due to the high cost.  This left me with the choice of acquiring a new alternative distributor unit.  There are a few options available: Bosch, Aldon and Lucas all made.

The Bosch Unit required some modification to fit the twin cam engine.   Aldon supply a unit complete with electronic ignition for a reasonable outlay.  However there were no units available at the time so I opted for a new Lucas 43D distributor that came as a kit complete with coil and ignition module.

Ordered a full set of gaskets and also a Burton Power modular water pump housing - something that I had wanted to install when I originally built the engine but couldn't afford at the time.

 

Stripped the engine in order to determine the damage caused by the errant distributor:

 

 

I found that the jackshaft had only lost the centre part of a couple of the gear teeth.  I recovered what appeared to be all of the metal shards along with a lump of distributor gear in the bottom of the sump.

 

After a thorough cleaning, I started to rebuild the engine using a spare jackshaft that I happened to have from my second engine.

 

 

Having finished refitting the head late one Sunday afternoon, I decided to turn the engine over on the starter to make sure that everything sounded OK - It did. I packed my tools away for another day.

The following evening I came to start installing the carbs and new ignition system.  Moving the carbs out of the way, it became apparent that I had omitted to follow step one of every Haynes manual procedure  - 

  1. Disconnect the battery

The clue came immediately at the point when the carbs slipped onto the solenoid and burst into flames. 

Amidst cries of Don't panic...I grabbed my trusty 'used only once before' fire extinguished and squeezed the trigger .  The short 'Phuut' that it emitted  told me that indeed the extinguisher was in itself extinguished.   The next thing that came to hand was the washing up bowl.  This didn't have much more effect than the extinguisher.  Finally just before my wife was about to call the fire brigade, I managed to douse the flames with the garden hose.

Amazingly having wiped off carbon deposits from the carbs I found very little damage to anything other than the the engine bay paintwork and my pride.

I finally reconnected the necessary components and started the engine with minimal of commotion.

 

Began to tidy up the wiring.  Starting behind the dashboard I sleeved up all of the loose cables in heatshrink.  Each wire was then soldered to its terminal to try to avoid any future connection problems.  I made a new loom to feed the rear lights, petrol pump and fuel gauge sender.  Finally I tidied up and soldered all of the engine bay wires.

 

I found that I was still getting problems with the carbs.  I was still getting a flat spot at around 1700rpm and the no.3 cylinder seemed down of power.  A pair of reconditioned, matched DCOE 40's appeared on e-bay already jetted for a Lotus Twin cam.  Having won the bidding and taken delivery I mounted the pair to the inlet manifold.  After syncing and setting the idle mixture and speed the difference was immediately noticeable.  The idle remained very even and when the no.3 cylinder plug lead was removed, it had a clear effect on the idling - unlike before.  The flat spot had also disappeared.